20 Chiana icons for farscape_20in20

[neonspider]

These are for the 21st round of the ever awesome farscape_20in20. It was a character round and I chose Chiana, who is my first non-Scorpy-looking pick for a character set.






Let me just say that this set did NOT happen easily. The first few icons I made I hated with passion. Things picked up a lot from there, but I still don't think this is one of my better new sets. There are some icons here that I really really love, but then a lot of the others look like fillers to me even though they were all made with full effort, idk. I guess I had a lot of pressure since last round both torzy86 and nebari_rebel made such awesome Chiana sets and I knew I had to make something completely different from either to avoid comparisons. So yeah that's why this set has no extra tricks like the textureless rule from last round, just 100% me and my current style, I hope it's enough :) I know I'm my own worst critic anyway so I decided just to post and be done with it.

The category prompt was to take inspiration from different icon makers. I have at least 12366768763312467743453409887576556 icon idols, so I knew I'd have to limit myself to the Scapers to keep this thing somehow in check, lol. I love this type of prompts and could have honestly done all 20 in this vein, so it was sad to only have to pick 5 and leave a lot of inspiring makers out. Some names you probably would have expected to see are not on the list, but that's only because there's a similar type of challenge at theiconquest so I'm saving some of our makers for that :)

Now who I actually used - behind a spoiler cut in case you want to try to guess first! :



1: inspired by ghanimasun, especially her fearless use of vibrant colors - the very thing I love the most about her work :)
2: inspired by shan_3414 - what stands out to me about her icons is negative space, clean removed backgrounds, general brightness and vibrancy. That's what I tried to incorporate in my icon!
3: inspired by _happyme_. It took me a while to figure out what I love the most about her(?) icons cause there's so much diversity in them, but then I remembered her really original way of using blurred/smudged backgrounds, in a way where you can still see the blur lines but it's intentional and works for the icon. Also the use of warm browns. So that's what I tried to do here :)
4: inspired bythyla87 and her love for levels, vintagey colorings and grungy textures!
5: inspired by bizarra - I remembered her once mentioning that she's the most happy with her darker, glowy sort of icons, and I agreed cause they are stunning! So I drew inspiration from icons such as this and this. I didn't quite get the same look, but I'm happy enough and the inspiration is still there! :)



Me and thyla87 came up with this little challenge for our ac sets - we'd have to use lyrics from randomized songs from our media players. I ended up with the following (no laughing at my 100% masculine music library!!! Not a word!! :DD):

ac1: Britney Spears - Criminal
ac2: Lindsay Lohan - Very Last Moment in Time
ac3: Alexandra Burke - The Silence
ac4: Jenni Vartiainen - Minä ja hän
ac5: 30 Seconds to Mars - The Hunter

I still have a billion icons for theiconquest to post in the next few days so I hope you won't mind the spam. I just know it will be a huge post even without this set and all the babbling associated with it, so I want to have an own entry for that :>

Also, you guys did see this post right? Our wonderful comm needs volunteer mods so that's where you go if you want to keep us going and strong! ^^ I sure do, but it's bad PR for any community if someone annoying like me is too visible and does everything, so I hope a lot of others volunteer as well :P

Finally, the actual icons:


10 THEMES

Serene	Nemisis	Essence	Catchphrase	Geometric
Past & Future	Left	Fake Background	Vibrant Colors	Monochrome

CATEGORY - Inspired by...

01	02	03	04	05

ARTIST'S CHOICE

01	02	03	04	05

Comments would of course be greatness and love ♥

Comments

[sayuri-x.livejournal.com]

OK, I am up right now and I have to get up and go to work in roughly 5 hrs! Insomnia how I hate thee! BUT I just have to comment on this set.

You are your harshest critic (we all are our own worst enemy I think!) but these are beautiful!!

Serene is so soft and glowy but still really sharp and just gyh! Love the lighting in it. By contrast I love the grunginess of Nemisis and how it looks almost sketched. Catprahse is just so perfect! Fits Chi to a tee and what is that font? I want. But the piece de resistance is Vibrant Colours. You know I cannot resist a vibrant icon but this is such a great way to interpret it. I love how the vibrant colours are the background and Chi herslef is still grey, rather than lay on textures and light blobs. It's just so ingenious and striking. I love your inspired set. They run the gamut from bright to dark and I particularly love #1, 4, 5. But I can totally see where the inspiration comes from.

And can I just say, I love that you have Britney Spears and Alexandra Burke in your music library! LOL Brillo. I love number two. Colour always looks so great on Chi but I am in love with number three. What cap was that you used. She looks like zombie!chi. Very cool effect. I love the lighting behind her head and how it looks so seamless. Her hair os still intact and everything. Kudos to the cut out and brushing skillz.

i have to say I think its a brilliant set. Defintely snagging Vibrant colors.

[daxcat79.livejournal.com]

OMG! Sooo much pretty! :D

[erinm-4600.livejournal.com]

Gorgeous!!

[neonspider]

Aw, thanks!! :)

[neonspider]

Thank you so much!!! ^^

[neonspider]

Omg such an amazing comment :O :O :O THANK YOU!!!

The font in catchphrase is Unnamed melody. And hee, Vibrant colors is my own favorite too, so yay for you agreeing! :D I couldn't really think of another way to make it vibrant, since she's so light in color that while I might be able to give her some color, it would hardly become *vibrant* anyway. So vibrant background it was! Glad it works for you :)

I am in love with number three. What cap was that you used. She looks like zombie!chi.

OMG, I was JUST thinking that 'I hope nobody notices that she looks like a zombie fresh out of grave'. I almost left that one out for that reason but then i decided I liked the texture/lighting stuff too much and went 'whatever, I'm just probably seeing things anyway, too lazy to dezombify'. And now you say it like it's a good thing, haha :DD I think the cap was one of your lovely bluray ones from 1x15, probably this one. I didn't actually cut the background in that one cause it was already a smooth one color thing, I love caps like that!

Thanks again for lovely comment, even though now I feel guilty for keeping you up when you should have been sleeping :P

[nymeria-55.livejournal.com]

As usual I'm attracted by warm colors as a moth is attracted to a flame :-D so my eyes fell first on "Inspired by" nr. 1 and "Artist's Choice" nr. 2 and 3.

And yet, even in the stark contrasts of "Left" and "Inspired by" nr. 5 there is an irresistible intensity that draws me.

If I were to say which icon is the most representative of Chiana - her spirit, her soul, the details that define her - I'd say "Catchphrase": she's all there, vibrant and so *alive*.

Great work!

[neonspider]

Thank you for the lovely comment! :) A lot of the ones you name as favorites are the ones that gave me most trouble and that I'm still not that confident about, so I'm very glad to hear they worked for you. It's always great to notice how differently people see graphics and pick favorites! :D

[thyla87.livejournal.com]

OMG! These are so beautiful and stunning! I love the colors and texture use.

My favorite are

- Essence (Great contrast and texture)
- Geometric (The colors are wonderful and I love texture)
- past&future (Excellent levels work and the light is impressive)
- Fake bacground (The colors are great and the background is very beautiful)
- Vibrant colors (OMG! I reaaly love the backgournd and the crop!!)
- Monochrome (It's very interesting and unique. Perfect job!)

And of course I love serene (beautiful light effect), nemisis (great contrast and the colors), Catchphrase (text is perfect to Chiana!), Left (I really love your texture use)!

And also I adore your cat set! 1 is so beautiful, I love the colors and texture use. Also I love the colors 2 and the crops is great. 3 is very beautiful and lovely and I love the background. And omg, you used me, too :D The levels work is great and the colors are just me :D Number 5 is also very powerfull, the contrast is perfect!

I really love your ac set, too! You did amazing job with it! Number 1 is impressive and unigue! Very lovely colors and texture use is wonderfull! I love text, too. This is my favorite! Also my favorite is 5. I love the colors and the crops and the light effect is sensational :) Also number 2 is very beautiful and I really like text/font. 3 has gorgeous colors and the background, it's also my favorite! Text/font are also stunning! I also love texture/text/font use number 4 and the crops is amazing!

This is very amazing, perfect and lovely set, again!! :D Brilliant job!!

[tiptoetwirl.livejournal.com]

I don't know much about the other people sets that you mentioned but this post is definitely you! The colours are bold and vibrant and I love the lighting, especially in serene and ac5. Also the crops on cat3 and ac2 are pretty awesome. Really, really great set!

[bizarra.livejournal.com]

Artist Choice 5 is simply amazing. That is a stunning icon. The blending is perfect, the colors just... amazing. :)

Serene is gorgeous. Love those colors!

And Aww, you made an icon inspired my me. :) And it is beautiful! I love the light vs dark contrast. and how soft it is. Fab!

This is a gorgeous set! :)

[neonspider]

Thank you so much for the amazing feedback, I am very flattered :)

[neonspider]

Wow, it's always a lovely surprise when someone who isn't in the comm or even the fandom comments. You're awesome, thanks!!! Especially about the lighting, it's something I always try to improve cause I often notice in everyone elses icons how the lighting can really make the icon!

[neonspider]

Aw, thank you so much! :)

[tiptoetwirl.livejournal.com]

Well I don't think you have to watch a show to appreciate a well made icon so I try to comment whenever I can :)
Also I get what you're saying about lighting, it's definitely an area I've been trying to pay special attention to recently as well.

[ghanimasun]

I think this is a great set as usual from you!

Really love the crop and feel of Essence and the dramatic feel of Past&Future.

I'm overwhelmed and surprised that anyone used me in the inspriation category, so thank you for even thinking of me! Also I love AC1 of course....yay for bright colors! And its always super interesting to see other people do anything isnpired by my icons, because I have no concept of what my 'style' is really.

All the Category icons are so very pretty actually. And I also quite love AC3 and AC4. Lovely job with the set!

[neonspider]

Wow, thank you for the lovely feedback!! :)
I love that you like so many of my least favorites - like with Essence, it was the first one I made (I have an obsession to make the icons in order), after making I thought 'this set is going to look excactly like the one for the last round, how dull is that' :P and the same with ac4, totally classified it under 'filler', so it's great that you don't see it like that!

I can't say I'm very happy with the one inspired by you either, I think I made it too bright but couldn't tone it down without sacrificing the light effect which I liked. So idk, I don't really think I did any justice to your style, your icons definitely have a better contrast. But still, you being in the inspirations was a given :) Thanks again for the comment!!

[katiemariie.livejournal.com]

Great set! I love the colorful backgrounds you used in geometric, vibrant colors, and cat 2. As usual, your use of texture is awesome. The use of text in catchphrase is also great.

[neonspider]

Thank you very much! ^^

[sodamnreckless.livejournal.com]

hahahaha I might even start watching farscape just to use your icons.